SACRAMENTO  Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Donnelly, an Assemblyman from San Bernardino County, believes that the state’s voters are ready to have a serious political discussion that centers on fundamental issues about freedom — about whether the government has gotten too big for the public’s good.

Unfortunately for his campaign, he has been mired in a debate about whether tongue-in-cheek video ads are offensive to Latinos. The fracas is emblematic of the situation the GOP finds itself in — not just for governor, but for any statewide political office. How does the party get some respect?

The ads feature Donnelly and actress Maria Conchita Alonso, who is holding a dog named Tequila. Donnelly states his views and Alonso restates them in Spanish. It’s hard to see the offense, but immigrant-activist groups say the ad features stereotypes, although Donnelly supporters say critics are just mad that Alonso would back a candidate with conservative views on immigration.

Donnelly is happy that these low-budget YouTube videos are getting out his message, but the party’s more staid leaders are no doubt worried about the message the party is broadcasting. The main fallout, so far, has been that Alonso quit her role in a San Francisco production of the feminist play called “The Vagina Monologues” amid protests.

This just adds to the perception that his campaign is something less than serious.

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With Gov. Jerry Brown riding so high and the GOP falling so low, the governor is unlikely to face anything more than token opposition. Republicans want to find a candidate who offers the right “brand” message and won’t hurt down-ticket legislative races. Those are low expectations.

Earlier this month, Neel Kashkari, the former Bush administration Treasury official who administered the bank bail-out known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), announced his candidacy. A political novice, he’s trying to reach non-traditional GOP voters with a “jobs and education” message that targets the poor, but he’s been dealing with his own bad press about his repeated failure to even vote.

Those are the two choices thus far, now that former Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado – whose unpopularity among Republican voters seems to rival that of the TARP program – dropped out of the race. Democrats are chuckling, but it’s not funny to see the end of any viable political competition in the nation’s most-populous state.

Donnelly is, in his own way, trying to appeal to voters who don’t typically vote for Republicans. That was the point not only of his commercials, but of his activism on behalf of some parents who have lost custody of their children to Child Protective Services. He held a hearing in East Los Angeles to spotlight what he calls “Kafka-esque” problems in those agencies.

His campaign goal is to raise about 10 percent of the funds raised by Brown. “The bottom line is we're connecting with people's hearts and minds,” Donnelly told me in an interview last week. He got upset during a campaign stop where a Republican referred to Democrats as their enemies. “I stood up right after him and said Democrats are not the enemy. I said tyranny is the enemy. ... We've all witnessed the modern-day tyranny of the IRS, and the NSA, government abusing its power and trying to control us rather than controlling itself."

Donnelly has a record of working with liberal Democrats on these issues that concern him. For instance, he co-authored the California Liberty Preservation Act, which forbids state officials from cooperating with the feds as part of their indefinite-detention program. He also champions traditional reform issues. “There is report after report after report about slush funds and wasted money and every time you turn around there has been no serious effort, just talk, talk and talk,” he said. “Government is still the fastest growing industry in this state and that’s unsustainable.”

The state has a new top-two “jungle” primary system, where candidates from all parties run on the same primary ballot, and the two candidates with the highest vote counts regardless of party move on to the general election. That system is designed to boost the chances of moderates. But it probably won’t matter this year.

The good news for the GOP is that both Donnelly and Kashkari are taking their views to new audiences. The bad news, though, is that the party has a long road before most California voters will consider what they are saying.